The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) incurred a significant increase in its losses this fiscal year, as revenues jumped but volumes dipped.
Net loss for 2024 fiscal totaled $9.5 billion, up from $6.5 billion (up 46%) last year, said a Nov. 14 statement from the agency reflecting its earnings. The $3 billion increase in losses occurred at the same time the agency had a slight revenue increase from $78.18 billion to $79.53 billion. The revenue uptick was not supported by an increase in mail volume, which fell from 116 billion units to 112 billion units.
The $9.5 billion loss is more than $3 billion above projections.
When USPS last raised the price of stamps in July, it justified the decision by saying the hike was financially necessary for the agency, as per the DFA plan.
“USPS prices remain among the most affordable in the world,” it said.
Earlier in May, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) said the postal agency’s July price increase was in line with regulations and that there was no legal reason to reject the hikes. PRC is an independent agency tasked with regulatory oversight of USPS.
A group of senators criticized USPS in a letter in April for the “unsustainable” price hikes. After the agency began raising postage rates, “we began to see the disastrous effects in 2023,” they wrote, pointing to a decline of 11 billion pieces of mail volume that year and the $6.5 billion loss.
“Instead of connecting the two issues, USPS blamed inflation, despite mail prices nearly doubling inflation in that time period.”
“Since August 2021, there have been six unprecedented postage hikes—one every six months, well above inflation—that have hurt businesses, newspapers, nonprofit mailers, and individual Americans,” LaTurner noted.
Now that we have DOGE and the will of the people behind us, it seems like a PERFECT time to start gutting these bloated and useless agencies: Amtrak, NPR, National Endowment for the Arts, and the biggest of all: get rid of the postal monopoly and let competition bring down prices and improve service.